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This observational study assessed the knowledge of pregnant women attending antenatal clinics at two selected hospitals in Abeokuta South, Nigeria on the causes and risk factors of maternal mortality, identified barriers to knowledge acquisition, and examined the influence of parity of respondents on their knowledge of factors causing maternal mortality. Maternal mortality is extremely high in Nigeria, it is defined as the death of a woman while pregnant or within 42 days of termination of pregnancy, irrespective of the duration and site of the pregnancy, from any cause related to or aggravated by the pregnancy or its management but not from accidental or incidental causes. Descriptive research design was used in this study and qualitative data from 136 respondents selected randomly, were obtained through a self-designed questionnaire that comprised three sections. Data were analyzed and indicated that parity of the pregnant women do not have an influence on their knowledge of factors responsible for maternal mortality. Findings revealed that majority (67.6%) of the respondents had high knowledge on the causes of maternal mortality – haemorrhage, sepsis, prolonged/obstructed labour, anaemia, unsafe abortion, infection, hypertensive disorders, care rendered by unskilled medical practitioners and its risk factors - parity, poverty, place of last delivery and low attendance at antenatal clinic. Educational background, marital status, irregular antenatal visits, socio-cultural practices and occupational status were identified as barriers to knowledge acquisition. This paper concluded that pregnant women may have a high knowledge about the factors responsible for maternal mortality. This is probably due to the fact that all respondents had formal education and because they were interviewed on antenatal clinic days, which suggests that they might have heard about the causes and risk factors for maternal mortality during their visits. Authors recommended that government should employ qualified health professionals and provide medical subsidy, it is hoped that this will ensure that pregnant women get quality care throughout the period of pregnancy and delivery.

Background: To determine the spectrum of shoulder pathologies suffered by surfers. Methods: Prospective descriptive study. Surfers with shoulder injuries who were referred to a sub-speciality orthopaedic shoulder private practice situated on the Northern beaches of Sydney (Australia) were recruited over a three-year period. Results: 42 shoulders in 37 subjects were included-12 acute injuries (29.3%), 9 acute on chronic (22%) and 20 chronic injuries. Average age 48 years (range 20-72 years). Seventeen subjects (46%) had manual occupations and 20 subjects (54%) had office-based occupations. Spectrum of pathologies included rotator cuff tendon tears, long head of biceps tendon pathology, labral tears, acromioclavicular and glenohumeral joint osteoarthritis. Discussion: There is a wide spectrum of acute and chronic shoulder injuries sustained by surfers. The most common presentation was for chronic pathology. The average age of 48 suggests that age may play a role in attritional/degenerative change and therefore an increased likelihood of injury.

Molecular interactions between proteins or between proteins and small molecules are pivotal events for selective binding of biological structures and, consequentially, for their correct function. In this scenario, the evaluation of kinetic parameters, characterizing a molecular interactions, is considered a crucial event to reveal the nature of binding processes. The focus on peculiar forces involved in the molecular recognition represents an opportunity to explore biological interactions in real time, and to develop a number of innovative biotechnological methods for diagnosis and/or therapy. Currently, optical biosensors, offering an increasingly effective technology to detect in real time molecular binding, are usually composed by a detector, a sensor surface and a sample delivery system: only definite substances, which are able to interact specifically with the biological part, lead to an optical or electrical signal of the physical transducer. In this review we want to highlight the exponentially-growing interest of Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR) based optical biosensors for molecular binding analysis in different research fields.

A 27-year-old pregnant woman presented with acute pyelonephritis for the first time in her pregnancy. We admitted the patient for treatment. On the second day, her fetus had bradycardia as a result of maternal hypothermia. Infusion of warmed fluid and providing a warm blanket were the definite treatment in this case. However, the fetal heart rate gradually returned to normal after rewarming the patient. We discharged the patient in a good state after one week. No complications were noticed.

The article conducted a study of computer acoustic analysis of Jitter and Shimmer voice parameters in children with dysphonia after laryngeal surgery. The study found that children with dysphonia had significantly lower preoperative Jitter and Shimmer scores (574359, 587, and 2.3) compared to healthy children (1316743.376 and 4.84). At 1 month after surgery, affected children showed a decrease in Jitter and Shimmer indices compared with these acoustic indices before surgery. However, at 2 months, there was a significant increase in Jitter and Shimmer scores, and at 3 months, Jitter and Shimmer scores were comparable to Jitter and Shimmer scores in healthy children without dysphonia. The results of the study show that the method of analyzing the acoustic parameters of the voice Jitter and Shimmer allows a phoniatrist to objectively assess the occurrence of a voice disease in patients with dysphonia, and this method is the most accurate criterion for determining the pathologies of dysphonia and determining the treatment program for the disease.

Six clinical Staphylococcus aureus strains isolated from different clinical samples. Isolates ASIA1 and ASIA2 isolated from urine samples of urinary tract infected patients; ASIA3 isolated from swab samples of burn abscess patients at Assiut University hospital as well as ASIA4, ASIA5 and ASIA6 obtained from blood samples of different cancer patients at South Egypt Cancer Institute. All isolates showed varied abilities to produce halo zones of hydrolysis with different diameters on blood agar, heated plasma agar, casein agar and skim milk agar plates along with different clot lyses percent. Staphylococcus aureus ASIA3, ASIA4 and ASIA6 produced 4.83, 5.98 and 2.08 U/mL of staphylokinase on tryptone soy broth reduced to 1.95, 2.08 and 1.70 U/mL on casein hydrolysate yeast extract broth, respectively. On the other hand, Staphylococcus aureus ASIA1, ASIA2 and ASIA5 gave 2.20, 2.93 and 3.65 U/mL on CYEB compared to 2.10, 1.88 and 3.41 U/mL on TSB as production medium. The staphylokinase yielded from the hyperactive producer Staphylococcus aureus ASIA4 was increased for 7.64-fold (from 2.08 U/mL to 15.88 U/mL) on the optimized fermentation medium composed of 5.0 g sucrose as carbon source, 10.0 g soy bean as nitrogen source, 5.0 g NaCl, K2HPO4 5.0 g and pH 7.0 that inoculated with isolate ASIA4 and incubated for 24 h at 35 °C. Moreover, Staphylokinase activity reached its peak at the optimal enzymatic reaction conditions which were reaction time 25 min, casein as substrate, reaction pH 8.0, reaction temperature 40 °C. In addition it retained 100% of its activity at temperature ranged between 15 and 45 °C and pH ranged from pH 6.0 to 9.0. EDTA inhibited the enzyme activity by 3.0% to 32.2% with increasing its values from 30.0 to 90.0 mM. MgCl2 at a concentration of 30 mM increased the enzyme activity by 4% and then slightly decreased at higher concentrations but NaCl was potent staphylokinase activator at concentrations lower than 90 mM.

Antiphospholipid syndrome may present in various ways from cutaneous manifestation, obstetric complications, neurological manifestation, and cardiac manifestation to renal involvement. There are many cardiac complication of anti-phospholipid syndrome, among them are valvular dysfunction, pulmonary hypertension, myocardial infarction, intracardiac thrombi, and ventricular dysfunction [1]. The most common cardiac manifestation is valvular abnormalities ranging from 11.6-32% [2-5].

In this work is analyzed scientific literature involved in human evolution to be used as an archeological Pathway to link different sciences in an overall new discipline. A rational classification of single evidence make possible to better understand under new light some Physiological process. The archeological instrument to be applied in other field like biology or other sciences.

Erectile dysfunction (ED) is a common disorder whose prevalence increases with age. Over time a strong correlation between erectile dysfunction and cardiovascular disease has been established as the result of the same pathophysiological process: endothelial dysfunction and atherosclerosis. Because small vessels of the penis can be affected by atherosclerotic plaque earlier than coronary arteries, carotids or femoral arteries, men often have symptoms of ED long before the signs of cardiovascular disease appear. For this reason, ED can act as a marker of early atherosclerosis that predicts the onset of cardiovascular disease at a later time.

Pyogenic liver abscess (PLA) is a life-threatening infection that may develop as a result of an underlying hepatobiliary disease. A possible complication of PLA is metastatic spread, resulting in distant seeding of infection in other organs, and occasionally in the epidural space. Spinal epidural abscess (SEA) is a rare infection with severe potential complications. We describe a 71-year-old patient who presented with ascending cholangitis that was complicated by micro PLA, with a subsequent Escherichia coli bacteremia and metastatic SEA. An emergent surgical intervention with laminotomy and drainage of the epidural collection was performed. The patient was treated with a prolonged antibiotic regimen, with uneventful recovery and no neurologic sequelae. To our knowledge, this is the first reported case of a SEA following E. coli PLA.